LAHORE, March 13: The Private Education Institutions Ordinance 1984 is being amended to introduce a uniform policy for the registration of private schools in Punjab.

“There are no rules and regulations at present for the registration of private schools,” Punjab Special Secretary Schools Zahid Saeed told Dawn on Tuesday. According to him, a five-member committee constituted by the education department recommends a private school for registration with the department.

In the absence of any official criteria, Mr Saeed said, some schools managed to influence the committee and obtain registration.

He admitted that a number of private schools lacking proper infrastructure and qualified teaching staff had been registered with the department.

“The department is reviewing the ordinance and will prepare an amended draft to address these problems,” he added. He did not give any time frame for presenting the amended draft in the provincial assembly for legislation but expressed the hope that the entire process would be completed this year.

Mr Saeed said about 30 to 40 per cent private schools in the province were not registered with the education department and the new draft would also bring them into the net.

To a query whether the board for intermediate and secondary education only required registration with the education department for a privately-managed school to grant affiliation, he said it was only one of the prerequisites for the boards to follow.

He said the boards were in fact against the practice of granting affiliation to those private institutions only which were registered with the department.

On the other hand a Lahore Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education official, who earlier had claimed in a statement that it awarded affiliation to only those institutions that were registered with the education department, admitted that the board also followed ‘certain other rules’ for affiliation.

BISE secretary Haji Dogar told this reporter that the board only gave affiliation to those institutions which had adequate laboratory, library and graduate teaching staff, especially a science teacher. A certificate was required for such institutions from the health department.

“We grant them affiliation only for a year, which is extended or terminated after review by a committee, comprising board’s head, secretary and branch officer,” Dogar said, adding that only a handful private institutions in the five districts under its jurisdiction had been awarded permanent affiliation.

According to reports, some private institutions, which had been awarded provisional affiliation by the board on the condition that they would gradually make progress and provide maximum facilities to their students, are getting the period extended without meeting their commitment.